Supreme Court won’t take Wyoming murder case

May 14, 2018

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Wyoming man who was 16 when he fatally shot another teenager in the head at point-blank range will be resentenced for the killing after the Supreme Court declined to step in to the case.

The Supreme Court said Monday it will not take the case of Phillip Sam, who killed 19-year-old Tyler Burns in a Cheyenne park in 2014. Sam was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 25 years, plus three consecutive sentences of at least nine years each.

Wyoming’s highest court overturned the sentence in 2017. The court said Sam was effectively sentenced to life without parole even though a court concluded he didn’t deserve to be in prison for the rest of his life.